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After a near-perfect tour of England, the Indian team flew out to the West Indies for an eight-game white ball tour. The Men in Blue will play three One Day Internationals along with five T20Is in the Caribbean as they prepare for the 2022 T20 World Cup. But for this tour, the BCCI has already broken the bank as they had to pay a huge sum of money in travel expenses.
As per reports, The BCCI has expended INR 3.5 crore on a private jet which was taken by the Indian team for the journey from Manchester to Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. The flight took off on Tuesday afternoon from England and landed in Port of Spain by 11.30 pm IST.
The BCCI backed this expense by addressing the size of the travelling party from Manchester. A source was quoted saying, “The BCCI spent Rs 3.5 crore on the chartered flight which took Team India from Manchester on Tuesday afternoon to Port of Spain (the capital of Trinidad and Tobago) by 11.30 pm IST. The reason a chartered flight was booked for the team was not Covid-19.”
“It's difficult to book so many tickets in a commercial flight-the Indian contingent includes 16 players and members of the support staff, including head coach Rahul Dravid. There are players' wives who have travelled to the Caribbean too,” the source continued in a report by the Times of India.
“Normally, in a commercial flight, this expense would've been around Rs 2 crore. A business class ticket from Manchester to Port of Spain would be around Rs 2 lakh. A chartered flight is more expensive, but it's a logical option to take. Most top football teams have a charter now,” the report added.
India’s squad for 3 ODIs: Shikhar Dhawan (Captain), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Deepak Hooda, Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan (wk), Sanju Samson (wk), Ravindra Jadeja (vice-captain), Shardul Thakur, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Mohd Siraj, Arshdeep Singh.
India’s squad for 5 T20Is: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Ishan Kishan, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Shreyas Iyer, Dinesh Karthik, Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, R Ashwin, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh.